Friday, December 8, 2017

Modern cars have standard machine readable vehicle identification (VIN) numbers. Old cars have numbering methods that vary from one brand to the next. In this essay I will show you what numbers look like on Rolls-Royce and Bentley motorcars from the 1970s Shadow through the 1990s Spur era

This article is illustrated with images of a 1983 Rolls-Royce and a 1990 Bentley. The 1983 car is a Corniche Drophead; the 1990 is a Continental Convertible

The number plate most people know is in the driver door jamb - the area of body in front of the front door. You should see a small plate that identifies the model (Continental in this example) and a larger plate with the date of manufacture and gross vehicle weight (the maximum the car can weigh, fully loaded) and the gross axle weights (the maximum weight on each axle, fully loaded.)

The large plate has the vehicle identification number and say the car meets requirements for whatever market for which it was originally built. The photo here shows a US market car but other markets are similar.

Cars built after 1987 should have bar code tags with a machine readable version of the VIN at the rear edge of the doors, as shown below:

You should see a metal plate with the VIN at the base or side edge of the windshield:

If you open the hood (bonnet) you will see a body number plate on the firewall. This shows the body number, which is the fourth digit of the VIN, and the last 7 digits. Reading the plate below you can see how the body number is derived from the whole VIN, shown in the photos above at the windshield base.

The plate on the left underside face of the bonnet (hood) gives the paint and interior trim codes. Some cars will have one code; two-tone vehicles will have two.

The VIN is also stamped into a structural part of the body on or adjacent to the right front strut tower or wheel well, as shown below. Newer cars will have a bar code VIN tag on the strut tower also.

John Elder Robison is the general manager of J E Robison Service Company, celebrating 30 years of independent Bentley, Rolls-Royce, BMW/MINI, Mercedes, and Land Rover restoration and repair in Springfield, Massachusetts. John is a longtime technical consultant to the car clubs, and he’s owned and restored many fine British and German motorcars. Find him online at www.robisonservice.com or in the real world at 413-785-1665

Reading this article will make you smarter, especially when it comes to car stuff. So it's good for you. But don't take that too far - printing and eating it will probably make you sick.

Sunday, December 3, 2017

I just finished a controversial new book, To Siri With Love
by Judith Newman. Reading this book made me feel like memoirs from autism moms
are a thing whose time has come and gone . . .

At the same time, I can’t help but believe the publisher who
brought this story to market, and the reviewers who praised it, must not share
that opinion.And of course the author
does not seem to hold that opinion either.I’ve no doubt she loves her autistic son and wants the best for him.

So why do I find this book troubling, even as the
non-autistic literary community has lavished praise upon it? And lest you think it’s just me that is
troubled . . . the reason I read the book was the storm of tweets and messages
I received from autistic people urging me to boycott or criticize it.

Perhaps this is an autistic thing. Maybe it's a situation where non-autistics find a story about one of our tribe interesting or entertaining, even as we autistics find the same words deeply troubling.

Without giving it all away, I’d say the author’s attitudes
toward her son, her family, and autism appear to be at odds with the set of
values and ideals that is taking shape among autistic self advocates
today.It would be a great understatement
to say the author’s views would be aggressively challenged by, for example, the
neurodiversity students at a university like my own William & Mary.

As expressed in the book, the author’s ideas triggered many
autistic readers (including yours truly) to such an extent that the book’s
other messages were missed. For example, the premise of the title - that a young
autistic fellow could find a friend in Apple’s Siri seems largely lost. Little is made of the relationship between
Gus – the autistic star of the book – and Siri other than to dismiss it for
shallowness and nonhuman nature.

I found that ironic as I’d written a chapter “One With The
Machine,” in Look Me in the Eye. In that I describe talking to and becoming
part of a concert lighting system.Not one
of the million-plus people who read that story called it shallow.If I could talk to lighting, why can’t Gus
talk to Siri?

It’s not for me to answer, but I’d speculate that the mom
may not understand that aspect of her son, and she dismisses what she doesn’t
get.I don’t know her, but I know that
is a common human trait and I’ve known other people who would behave exactly
that way.

The tone of the book left me feeling uncomfortable in many
spots. I had that feeling when the author talked about her non-autistic son
(musing about masturbation), her husband (who made her suffer through endless
monologues about the subway, which she says she tolerated so he wouldn’t
inflict them on someone else) and her autistic son Gus (for whom she wishes to
remain adult guardian in case she needs to regulate his reproductive ability.)

That last bit was particularly disturbing to many autistic
readers.Her description of Gus is that
of a sweet, kind teenager who thinks and talks, and gains more skills with every passing
year.Guardianship law mandates that
people with developmental challenges be given the maximum amount of
self-determination, which seems opposite her stated goal.If I were Gus and I read that, I would run
away tomorrow and take my chances on the street.

Now, the author may feel that's irrelevant because her son won't read it and react that way, but putting her son aside, I'm surprised she did not consider how badly another autistic person might react to those words. They clearly position her writing as from a non-autistic parent's perspective and embodies much of what actual autistic people criticize in such literature.

Early in the book Newman implies her son is not fully sentient. She asks why she is unable to find anything she can share with him. Yet her descriptions paint a picture of a boy with many interests (which she must not share) and enough thoughts that sentience should not be in doubt. A thoughtful reader is left to wonder how much of the book's reflection on the child actually bears upon the mom?

There are other characterizations that may be unintentional
but which were still deeply offensive to the subjects.For example, autistic creative person
Amythest Schaber was described as “looking like everyone’s favorite manic pixie
dream girl.”I can’t speak for Amythest,
but I can assure you that I’d be upset if someone introduced me that way.What does it matter what someone looks like, if
the purpose of discussion is their insights?

If you are writing a nice, funny, or helpful family memoir
there is a good test authors should use:Would the child subjects of the book be humiliated if they read the
story as an adult?In my opinion this
book fails that test. It says things I would not write about my own kids, had
they done those same things.

Ten years ago when I wrote Look Me in the Eye there were a
ton of autism mom blogs describing family behaviors in similarly embarrassing
detail.I wondered about that at the
time, thinking how upset I’d be to read such about me.Thankfully many of those stories have since
been taken down or edited.

With respect to Siri With Love, I will just say that if Gus
reads it, I hope he believes his mom does have great love for him just the way
he is and will be.

With all the talk of Gus’s disability and how (in his
mother’s stated opinion) he may not amount to much on many fronts, one thing
comes through loud and clear:Gus does
not seem to feel disabled at all.He’s a
pretty happy guy, content with life. As she says, Gus is not self injurious angry or destructive.

Might that be just enough? Or if the author wanted more, might she direct herself toward helping develop a safe secure housing plan for Gus if and when he requires lifelong supports, knowing she will be gone? I did not see much of that in the story, yet that is many parent's biggest concern. Gus's challenges are no doubt real and significant. I get that much from the story. My issue is with the attitude, which just did not make me feel good.

I’m an autistic guy, and a parent of an autistic son whose
mom also was (she died a few years ago) autistic. I’m the son of an autistic
dad, so I’ve got autism covered all ways.Even so, I realize autistic people come in all shapes, sizes and
viewpoints and some are rather divergent from my own.I’ve little doubt that Judith Newman loves
her son and had the best of intent writing this book, and I feel bad for penning
what feels like a relentlessly negative review of her work.

I hope my words help her to understand why her book has
elicited the strong response she’s getting from some in the autism community,
and set her on a path to reconsidering some of her views in light of the
thoughts emerging from actual autistic people. Ms. Newman is clearly a talented writer and I expect we will hear more from her in the future. I certainly hope I can paint a more positive picture of her next work.

There were many spots where this book made me uncomfortable
as I saw myself in the narrative.The
husband’s monologues – I’m like him today.Gus’s obliviousness to some things – I’m still the same now.In both cases I would very much hope my own
wife or mother did not feel as she wrote.

If this book shows one thing it is this:Parents need to hear about autism from actual
autistic people.Parents need support
too, but the place to get that is in private, not by discussing our(their) kids
in a public forum.

Always remember that the only people who truly know what it’s
like to “live autistic” are actual autistic people.Everyone else is watching and guessing, sometimes correctly, but other times . . . disastrously wrongly.

John Elder Robison

John Elder Robison is an autistic adult and advocate for people with neurological differences. He's the author of Look Me in the Eye, Be Different, Raising Cubby, and Switched On. He serves on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee of the US Dept of Health and Human Services and many other autism-related boards. He's co-founder of the TCS Auto Program (A school for teens with developmental challenges) and he’s the Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and a visiting professor of practice at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

The opinions expressed here are his own. There is no warranty expressed or implied. While reading this essay will give you food for thought, actually printing and eating it may make you sick.

Monday, November 13, 2017

Recently I suggested that people who are actually autistic need
to have a strong voice in guiding autism research.I made the point that anyone who is not
autistic is simply guessing when it comes to interpreting our behaviors.Only an autistic person can truly know
autistic life.That is not a slight
against parents; it is just reality.

Some autistic people are parents too, and they have both
perspectives.That’s particularly
valuable.And parents as a group are the
only ones who can report fully on the development of very young children who
can’t speak for themselves.

But it leaves a fundamental question unanswered.If I believe autistic people should have a
strong voice in guiding research, what would I ask for?

Autism is a difference that affects us through the
lifespan.Childhood is 20-25% of the
typical lifespan.Less than 5% of
current research is directed toward understanding adult issues.I would shoot for 50% of newly funded
research addressing at either adult or full lifespan issues.

I’d require that proposed research include a statement from
autistic community members about the methodology, utility, and ethics of the
proposed study.I’d expect at least half
the community members to be actual autistic people with the others being parents
and professionals.

As for the topics of study . . .

I’d make the study of apparent early mortality of autistic
people a top priority.Why does it
happen and what can we do?

The initial findings on suicide and suicidal ideation are
scary enough that I think that area deserves its own concentration of study.

I’d put considerably more emphasis on understanding the
co-occurring conditions that accompany autism. Epilepsy, anxiety, intestinal issues,
depression, and others.Most of these
conditions seem more resistant to treatment or control in autistic people.Why is that and what can we do?If we could control or remediate these
symptoms we’d be a lot closer to minimizing autistic disability.

Look at epilepsy in the general population. Successful management via meds means no seizures. Now look at many autistics - same meds every day, but seizures still happen. Poor control. Or take depression. Autistic and non autistic mostly manage with meds. Yet we autistics are nine times more likely to kill ourselves. Why are our outcomes so much worse?

Many autistic people have sleep problems. That is another co occurring condition that merits more study. The number of problems associated with these co-occcurring conditions make me think that a large fraction of the pain and suffering we autistics experience comes from those things, and if we could relieve that it would be a really big deal.

I’d encourage research aimed at improving communication
skills, both verbal and non verbal. We've funded programs like PEERS and UNSTUCK to tremendous benefit.

I’d encourage research into improving executive function for
autistic people at all levels of support.

I’d figure out how to expand apprenticeship/work training
programs like Project Search that can transition both low and high support
autistic people into the workforce.These projects have shown very encouraging results but we don’t know how
to replicate them widely.

I’d seek research proposals from engineering and industrial
design people looking for innovative solutions to help non speaking autistics
communicate.We have letter and symbol
boards, and ipad versions of same, but I think there is a lot more potential
there.Unlocking communication is the
biggest thing we could do to relieve disability in some people.

I’d study other ways technology could be used to minimize
our autistic disabilities.We think of
autism as something we’ll address through medical treatment or behavioral
therapy but there is tremendous promise for help through engineering.

I’d study the housing options for adults who cannot live independently.Sharp differences exist between supporters of
community and individual apartment housing.We should agree that we need safe, supportive, affordable housing
options that parents can trust when they can no longer care for higher support
adult children at home.

I’d figure out how to extend the supports given to autistic people
through high school into adulthood.

I’d tackle the pressing questions the IACC has collectively
identified in the 2017 Strategic Plan Update.

Finally, I’d ask the community what their concerns are and
synthesize them into a revised plan.

This is far from a complete list, but it’s a start

John Elder Robison

John Elder Robison is an autistic adult and advocate for people with neurological differences. He's the author of Look Me in the Eye, Be Different, Raising Cubby, and Switched On. He serves on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee of the US Dept of Health and Human Services and many other autism-related boards. He's co-founder of the TCS Auto Program (A school for teens with developmental challenges) and he’s the Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and a visiting professor of practice at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

The opinions expressed here are his own. There is no warranty expressed or implied. While reading this essay will give you food for thought, actually printing and eating it may make you sick.

Monday, October 23, 2017

I am pleased to see that our government’s understanding of
autism is changing.For the first time,
the IACC’s Strategic Plan recognizes that the needs of people living with
autism today are paramount.This portion
of the introduction to the 2016-17 Update speaks for itself:

The IACC has moved toward a paradigm shift in how we
approach autism. A few years ago, scientists saw autism as a disorder to be
detected, treated, prevented and cured. The majority of research was directed
at understanding the genetic and biological foundations of autism, and toward
early detection and intervention.

Today, our understanding of autism is more nuanced. We
realize that there are many different “autisms” – some severe, and some
comparatively mild – and that ASD affects several distinct domains of
functioning differently in each individual. We have come to understand that
autism is far more common than previously suspected and there are most likely
many undiagnosed children, adolescents, and adults in the population, as well
as under-identified and underserved individuals and groups, such as girls/women
with ASD, people in poorly resourced settings, members of underserved minority communities,
and individuals on the autism spectrum with language and/or intellectual
disabilities.

Most importantly, individuals on the autism spectrum have
become leading voices in the conversation about autism, spurring acknowledgment
of the unique qualities that people on the autism spectrum contribute to
society and promoting self-direction, awareness, acceptance and inclusion as
important societal goals.

Research on genetic risk and the underlying basic biology of
ASD remains a primary focus of the research portfolio and does play an
important long-term role in the potential to develop new and broadly beneficial
therapies and interventions. These advances may one day mitigate or even
eliminate some of the most disabling aspects of autism, especially for those on
the spectrum who are most severely impacted.

However, balanced with the potential for long term efforts
to lead to significant future advance and opportunities, is the importance of
efforts that can have a more immediate impact. Individuals on the autism
spectrum today will remain autistic for the foreseeable future; most of them
have significant unmet needs. To help those people – who range in age from
infants to senior citizens – we must in the short-term translate existing
research to develop effective tools and strategies to maximize quality of life,
and minimize disability, while also ensuring that individuals on the autism
spectrum are accepted, included, and integrated in all aspects of community
life.

The community has been very clear in its calls for more
research into adult issues and better services and supports for the millions of
Americans living with autism today. Recent studies of adult mortality have
indicated that people with ASD are at higher risk of premature death than people
in the general population, painting a very disturbing picture that bears
investigation. In light of data and insights from the community, the IACC
proposes a comprehensive research agenda that addresses the needs of autistic
people across the spectrum and across the lifespan, including improvements to
services, supports, and policies. The IACC also believes that, as many in the
autism community have indicated, efforts to address the many co-occurring
conditions that accompany autism should be made a greater priority.